Borough councillors have done a U-turn over housing proposals for a garage site in Tavistock after hearing from a neighbour that she would lose light to her dining room.

Councillors last month granted planning permission for the application to build six flats and a cottage on the site on the corner of Ford Street in Tavistock, currently used by a second-hand car dealer.

But on Tuesday last week, West Devon Borough Council’s development management and licensing committee turned down Keith and Adele Selley’s proposal for 10 Ford Street after hearing objections to windows being blocked off in the neighbouring property to build the semi-detached cottage against the boundary wall.

At the committee in September, councillors approved the application after being told by a planning officer that the windows being blocked off were not the only ones in the rooms affected next door. But at Tuesday’s meeting, councillors heard an impassioned objection from Mrs Sawyer, who lives at number 9, saying this was not the case.

‘There’s a small window in the front of our house into our kitchen, but the dining room does not benefit from any light through that window,’ she said.

‘Whilst we get a lot of light into our lounge – and this extension was built in 2007 – this will not compensate for the loss of light from the window in the dining room.

‘So please imagine for a moment the thought of eating every meal every day in a room permanently lit by artificial light. And the ventilation would be greatly restricted too.’

The windows had been put into the wall by a previous occupant of number 9 without consulting her neighbours.

Kate Price, an architectural and conservation consultant speaking on behalf of applicants Mr and Mrs Selley, suggested her clients should have been consulted when the windows were put in, as the wall is ‘a party wall’, a boundary between two properties.

She added: ‘One of the windows leads into a wet room, which is a non-habitable room. The other is into a dining area, off the kitchen. The light to the dining area was obliterated by the construction of the large extension. And the approved plans, as has been pointed out, do not show these new windows.’ Councillors suggested that, if they had been aware of reduced light to number 9 in September’s meeting, they might have made a different decision.

Cllr Paul Vachon (Ind, Okehampton South) said he was surprised it had got to this stage. ‘To actually exclude light from a living room, within the house? It worries me somewhat they’re going to end up in a darkened room,’ he said. ‘I’m wondering if there’s another compromise. But I’m just amazed that we would allow this.’

Councillors voted against the application on the grounds of its ‘detrimental impact on a neighbouring amenity’.

Mrs Selley said afterwards: ‘We are very frustrated to find ourselves in this position. Four and a half years down the line, it seems so unjustified and it feels like we have been treated unfairly.’